Eat Winnipeg: Local Restaurants Host July-long Dining Specials

Fusion Grill's Warkentin tomato salad with alfalfa honey basil vinaigrette and avocado tempura captures the best of local cuisine but also adds an Asian twist.

Photo by Ian McCausland, courtesy of Ciao! Magazine

Mark your calendars and get ready to make some dinner reservations. Not only does July 1st mark Canada Day, it's also the kick off for a brand new summer dining event. Enter Eat Winnipeg, the city's newest food and restaurant event showcasing some of the best eateries around.

Throughout the month of July, 11 participating Winnipeg restaurants will serve special three-course meals for $36 per person. All menus (except one) feature an appetizer, entrée and a dessert and have been created by some of the city's top chefs.

Many of the meals showcase the best of Manitoba cuisine, including pickerel, pork belly, bison and freshly harvested rhubarb.

The month-long event is the work Ciao!, a local food-focused magazine published bi-monthly.

Eat! Winnipeg is a perfect excuse for locals to discover top local restaurants, re-visit their favourites or treat their out-of-town visitors to a memorable Manitoba-themed meal, she says.

"It's a great opportunity for [visitors] to sample some amazing Manitoba regional cuisine."

While Manitoba regional cuisine is front and centre at many of the participating restaurants, others are serving inspired fusion meals and even classic grilled steaks to entice all kinds of diners.

The restaurants run the gamut from fine dining to casual eateries to steakhouses to bistros and one fondue house.

One of Winnipeg's buzzed about restaurants, deer + almond (click here for a review), a polished diner in the city's Exchange District, is also on board.

"It's really exciting to have them because they're brand-spanking new," Bend says.

Eat Winnipeg is the latest food promotion by the 15-year-old publication, which also hosts three other annual dining events including August's Taste the World, Dine About Winnipeg in February and Chocolate Fest, which runs every April. Eat Winnipeg will run every July and Bend says this year's inaugural event is the start of bigger things to come.